not a balanced diet,
mostly sugar, but it is a splendid food. The difficulty is in keeping it
soft. But it is not a difficult thing. Cold storage will keep the
chestnut in splendid shape for eating purposes. I would plant chestnuts
and plant them now. Sooner or later, if they die off, we in the East
will be prepared to replace them, but for the present you will have the
whole field east of the Rocky Mountains. I do not know of another
opportunity as great as the chestnut. I just wish I could take 20 acres
of this land with me back to my rocky Pennsylvania farm.

DR. COLBY: In Illinois the chestnut is not native and people
don't realize that it can be grown. Some of the speakers have mentioned
the Riehls. I want to mention the Endicott place. Mr. Endicott tells me
that it is increasingly difficult to supply the demand for his
chestnuts. He sells his nuts sometimes a year in advance. Developing of
cleaning machinery and sorting machinery is going on apace. Mr. Endicott
is interested in a sorting machine such as we use for apples. It is true
we are going to get the blight out here sooner or later. Meantime we are
going to try to anticipate it by securing hybrids which are resistant
and of good quality at the same time.

MR. SNYDER: I would like to say a word as to planting chestnuts
here in Iowa, and especially here north. What has been said is true of
the southern part of the state. We may grow varieties there that it
would not do to plant in the northern part of the state. I think I can
show you tomorrow if you visit my place that I have had considerable
experience in planting chestnuts just as an experiment. The first
planting mostly has gone out because of our climatic conditions. We have
severe winters. We must be careful what varieties we plant and what
stocks they are worked on when we do plant them. A few years ago a
nurseryman wrote me he would like to go out of business and he had
chestnut seedlings for sale. I bought his seedlings. I lost them all the
next winter. Why? Because of their mixed parentage, European and
Japanese. They were not hardy, that was all there was to it. If the
nurserymen here and farther north will be careful in the selection of
the varieties they use, we can grow them. There are two factors, the
stocks you graft on and the varieties you want to grow.

MR. FREY: In my old home place there are native chestnuts over
60 years old.

MR. SNYDER: If we had time I could take you to visit a gr